At 50, Upward Bound Still Opens Pathway to College - Higher Education

At 50, Upward Bound Still Opens Pathway to College - Higher Education: Nervous but determined, the 15-year-old boy walked into a conference room in Columbus, Ohio, for a fateful interview. If it went well, perhaps he’d have a chance to be the first member of his impoverished family to attend college.

That was 34 years ago, but Wil Haygood ― the renowned journalist and author whose writing inspired the film The Butler ― says he remembers it “like it was yesterday.”

“I knew in my heart and soul that this was a monumental moment for little Wil Haygood,” he recalled.

At stake was a place in Upward Bound, founded as an experimental program in 1964 as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, with a goal of helping students from low-income families get a college education.